Bleed Before it was Cool: Early descriptions of dissimulative pretense, their unintended effects, and their impact on the evolution of roleplaying

Editorial note: This article was originally published in the Knutepunkt 2025 book Anatomy of Larp Thoughts, a breathing corpus. It has been reprinted from there with the editors’ and authors’ permission. It has not been edited by Nordiclarp.org.

As the term roleplaying expanded beyond its theatrical roots, it embarked on a fascinating journey of transformation. European sources from the 18th and 19th centuries describe phenomena occurring during, or as a result of roleplaying, that we might now recognize as bleed. But what was the historical context of these cases, and what lessons can they offer for our understanding of roleplaying today?

Bleed, a concept first introduced by Emily Care Boss (2007), refers to the way emotions, thoughts, or experiences can spill over between a character and the player; flowing either from the character into the player or vice versa (Hugaas, 2024). After immersion, bleed is likely the most talked-about aspect of larping (Jeepen, 2007; Montola, 2010; Montola, 2011; Bowman, 2013; Kemper, 2017; Leonard and Thurman, 2018; Hugaas, 2019). This happens because the line between social reality and pretense is naturally blurred (Järvelä 2019). When we larp, our minds cannot fully separate the experience from reality, as we are actively thinking, physically embodying, and socially co-creating these moments (Kapitany et al., 2022).

This article is part of an ongoing Hungarian research line (Turi & Hartyándi, 2022; Turi & Hartyándi, 2023; upcoming) that investigates how the concept and notion of roleplaying is evolving through the centuries, instead of projecting the contemporary notion of larp into past or adjacent activities (Hartyándi, 2024).

The etymology of roleplaying and its early usages

The word rôle is of French origin, originally referring to the scroll (Latin rotula, English roll) that contained an actor’s lines and written instructions for a theatrical performance. From this, it later acquired its figurative meaning of role. Since actors perform their roles on stage, the phrase ‘to play a role’ is undoubtedly very old, with documented usage by Diderot, Goethe, and Schiller in the 18th century.

If actors play roles on stage, could it be that we are also playing roles in our lives? Shakespeare’s famous monologue in As You Like It (1623) — “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” — expresses not a groundbreaking insight into social behavior (Goffman, 1959), but rather a popular cliché of the time, likely tracing its roots back to Roman times (Garber, 2008). Nevertheless, humans are undeniably social roleplayers (Moreno, 1943).

In this linguistic and historical context, both the term ‘roleplaying’ itself, and its usage in the the sense of dissimulation, originally emerged in German. Dissimulation involves taking on roles to present an image contrary to one’s true feelings or intentions (Corsini et al., 1963). This can range from simple acts of politeness to elaborate uses, such as deception in scams or espionage.

Fake it till you make it

Justus Möser, a humble yet proactive giant, was a polyhistor and statesman of the small state of Osnabrück in today’s Lower Saxony. In his Patriotische Phantasien (1776), a compilation of previous newspaper essays addressing various societal-political issues relevant to Osnabrück, he sought to inspire a sense of civic responsibility through concise but playful and dramatic prose. One notable piece is likely one of the earliest sources to use the phrase ‘playing a role’ (eine Rolle spielen) to describe a dissimulation.

In this story, a married couple (the narrator and her husband) receive unexpected guests in the countryside. Feeling annoyed and unprepared, they decide to pretend to be the most charming hosts despite their initial frustration. As the narrator assesses: “In that very moment, our guests arrived, and we began playing our roles so brilliantly that the good people were utterly delighted.” (Möser, 1776, p. 370.)

This strategy is not only successful towards the guests. Unintendedly, after a quarter an hour, the pretense leads to genuine joy for the hosts, transforming their moods and fostering an atmosphere of mutual warmth and enjoyment. By making a polite effort to appear attentive, the hosts quickly became so themselves, as their attitude bled through the pretense.

As the title (‘A proven remedy for a bad mood, shared by a lady in the countryside’) shows, Möser often used fictional correspondence’ in this case, presenting the piece as a letter from a rural woman, offering practical advice on overcoming melancholy. This story is particularly intriguing, as it represents an early example of emotional bleed, showcasing a timeless self-help strategy: intentionally using dissimulation to influence and improve one’s mood through bleed. Yet, the records suggest that this practice went beyond such innocent uses of pretense.

Getting caught up in one’s own act

Half a century later, writer Karl Leberecht Immermann (1839) reimagined Rudolf Erich Raspe’s famous Baron Münchausen adventures, combining the baron’s fictional tall tales with sharp commentary on contemporary society. One chapter in Immermann’s version includes the reversed phrase of ‘roleplaying’ (Rollenspiel), possibly for the very first time in written German, and details its psychological effects.

The story unfolds in the crumbling castle of Schnick-Schnack-Schnurr where the eccentric hosts turn against their guest, Baron Münchhausen, who pretends to suffer from chronic sleeping to escape accountability. Interestingly, the often exaggerating and flamboyant baron is not the story’s biggest pretender. He prompts his servant, Karl Buttervogel, to impersonate Prince von Hechelkram to gain influence, and Emerentia, the host’s romantic daughter, falls for the ruse. As a twist, Münchausen covertly exposes Karl’s act, and the disillusioned young woman remarks that the servant “had identified with the role through continuous roleplaying” (ein fortwährendes Rollespielen mit der Rolle identifizirt, Immermann, 1839, p. 229).

Immermann describes Karl’s gradual immersion into his assumed role. Initially portrayed as a thoroughly practical character, he adopts noble mannerisms and grows increasingly confident in his act, thriving in his role, but slowly becomes frustrated by the constraints of his deception. Not only does Karl maintain the pretense, but he gradually inhabits the role; altering his behavior, attitude, and life expectations to such an extent that even outsiders, like the disappointed Emerentia, notice the transformation. This blurring of the line between pretense and social reality prompts Emerentia to question how sustained deception can shape identity. The story could be interpreted as an example of bleed that extends beyond emotions, influencing deeper levels of personality.

Alone in the circle

It may be mere coincidence, but it is worth noting that in both stories we are in a German-speaking area, in the fictional countryside, and the narrator reflects on the roleplaying from a female identity. What might be even more important is that compared to theatre and larp, these pretenses are not transparent and reciprocal, but dissimulative and pervasive (Montola, 2012) occurrences.

Generally speaking, both in theater and larp, pretend play is created by integrating two aspects. First, we behave as if we were in a different setting and situation; in other words, we are simulating an environment. Moreover, we are behaving as if we were other persons, so we roleplay characters. These two aspects create a complex pretense, regardless of whether there is an audience, sets, costumes, etc. The two examples discussed above are probably the first to mention the terms playing a role and roleplaying in a German context where setting-simulation is absent and the magical circle of play is not transparent; only one party pretends for dissimulative purposes.

Interestingly, these early cases not only exemplify dissimulation but also illustrate its unintended consequences. In Möser’s 18th-century essay, playing a role secretly leads to emotional bleed in the pretenders, while in Immermann’s 19th-century tale, dissimulative roleplaying goes even deeper. Could it be that bleed was particularly prevalent in both cases because the roles were not transparent, demanding the pretenders to perform with great effort and credibility—taking it more seriously than within the more permissive framework of playfulness? If we are alone within the magical circle of pretense, could we be more profoundly affected by it?

Later developments

As the notion of playing a role had escaped the walls of the theatre, it did not stop at these dissimulative interpretations, but gradually became increasingly abstract. Just as the notion of bleed can be extended to include any crossover between character and player, so too could the idea of playing a role. In its most derived meaning, as a synonym for ‘to have an effect or impact,’ it regularly appeared in late 18th-century German texts (e.g. Werthes, 1791) and was also evident in many examples in English and French.

Later, in the form of ‘rôle playing’, the reversed phrase entered English texts; first only in terms of children’s pretend play and its connection to identity development (Groos, 1901). From a psychological point of view, children roleplaying is inherently tied to bleed. Its primary function is imitating, practicing, and rehearsing; in other words, adopting new behaviours and experiences through playful experimentation (Kapitany et al, 2023).

But as we have seen from the two cases, adults are also affected by pretense. This is why the term roleplayer (Rollenspieler) first appeared in the works of Jacob L. Moreno (1924), who viewed social roles not as rigid constraints but as opportunities for spontaneity, experimenting with their utilization. Searching for the origins of larp, theorists often trace larp back to Moreno through an unbroken chain of influence, referring to him as the ‘father of roleplaying’ (Fatland, 2014; 2016). As demonstrated in this article, Moreno did not invent the term roleplaying in either German or English; however, he was likely the first to integrate what larpers now call bleed into his developmental methods for adults (Moreno, 1943). Ironically, this generative aspect of roleplaying was first demonstrated by fictional writings about dissimulative pretense.

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This article is republished from the Knutepunkt 2025 book. Please cite it as:
Hartyándi, Mátyás. 2025. “Bleed Before it was Cool: Early descriptions of dissimulative pretense, their unintended effects, and their impact on the evolution of roleplaying.” In Anatomy of Larp Thoughts, a breathing corpus: Knutepunkt Conference 2025. Oslo. Fantasiforbundet.

Cover image: Photo by Markus Donner on Pixabay.